For some people, the thought of the Iranian President going to ground zero wasn’t just controversial, it was a personal insult. Roman Kent is a holocaust survivor. Jim Riches’ son, a firefighter, was killed on 9/11. “We feel what happened at 9/11or in the concentration camps all days of our life it does not leave me for a day,” Kent said. On Thursday, CBS 2 HD followed both men as they tried to get someone from the Iranian Mission to the United Nations to talk to them about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit. At the building’s front desk, the men were told by an official, “I’ve given the info to the Iranian Mission and they’ll call you in a few moments.” Someone from the mission called back, saying she would try to set up an appointment.

Update 3:20pm Eastern 9/20. Ken Timmerman sends word that his organization, Foundation for Democracy in Iran, is organizing with David Bossie of Citizens United, to counter-protest at Ground Zero. They are chartering buses from Washington, D.C.:

Dear Friends of Freedom,

The Foundation for Democracy in Iran, in coordination with Citizens United and other groups, is calling on all Americans, regardless of their origin or political believes to come to New York on Monday to defend Ground Zero from desecration by the terrorist president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

We will be chartering buses from the Washington, DC area. Please watch our website, www.iran.org, for more details and for rendezvous points.

Columbia University was urged on Thursday to withdraw a speaking invitation to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who will be in New York for the United Nations General Assembly.

New York City Council speaker Christine Quinn wrote to the university urging them to cancel Ahmadinejad’s planned speech

on Monday, which is part of Columbia’s World Leaders Forum. “Ahmadinejad is a Holocaust denier,” she wrote.

On Wednesday New York police said Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, had been denied a request to visit the World Trade Center site of the September 11 attacks during his visit.

Quinn said universities should be a forum for a healthy exchange of differing ideas, but that there were limits.

Update 11:50am Eastern 9/20. A reader tips me to Columbia University students organizing a counter-protest over at this Facebook page. 200 of them and counting.

Update 5:50am Eastern 9/20. New Yorker Pamela at Atlas Shrugs is rallying and puts out a call to readers to join her across from the U.N. next Monday:

Join the National Rally to End the Threat Now Monday, September 24
12:00 noon, rain or shine
Dag Hammarskjold Plaza
2nd Avenue at 47th Street
(across from the United Nations) New York City

Are you coming?

Sgt. Tim Sumner, 9/11 family member and blogger, e-mails that he has asked his congressman if he’ll join him in protesting Ahmadinejad: “I have a direct contact to my Congressman, Bill Shuster, and I just emailed him asking him that if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad comes to Ground Zero, that I’d like him to be there with me blocking the way. I think every Senator and Representative ought to be asked to state they will stand in his way as well.”

The NYPost: “Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shouldn’t be received with respect anywhere in New York City. The notion of him standing at Ground Zero simply is repulsive.”

The terror kowtowers at Columbia University disagree. Why anyone would consider sending their kid there is beyond me.

***

Despite the NYPD’s rejection, the Iranian nutjob still plans to visit Ground Zero. And he’ll have Secret Service protection! WABC reports:

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad requested to visit Ground Zero during an upcoming trip to New York. That request was rejected Wednesday. But a source tells Eyewitness News that the decision may not stop him.

A law enforcement source says the Iranian mission to the United Nations has informed the Secret Service that the Iranian president intends to visit Ground Zero Monday at 10 a.m.

The source says regardless of the NYPD’s rejection of the request for a Ground Zero tour, Iran’s president and his entourage will be accompanied by a Secret Service protective detail, a detail provided to all heads of state when they visit the United States.

Anyone in NYC know how to apply for a permit to organize a counter-protest to defend Ground Zero? Is it too late?

Reader S.M. e-mails: “I say the hell with permits … Lower Manhattan should empty out about 9:00am and surround the WTC site about 20 people deep. Let’s see the Secret Service try to ‘make a hole’ for this POS.”